


Forget I Even Asked You

by Niknaksstuff



Series: Five Word Prompts [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 10:03:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15022220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niknaksstuff/pseuds/Niknaksstuff
Summary: Written following the Five Word Prompt Challenge on tumblr by @amaradangeli





	Forget I Even Asked You

“Carter,” Jack O’Neill, barked after his 2IC, who seemed intent on avoiding him after disappearing down the first available corridor she came across. 

Colonel Samantha Carter stopped in her tracks and with a mixture of defeat and frustration on her face, she turned to face her commanding Officer. 

“Finally!” Jack sighed. “You’re more difficult to catch up with than Daniel.”

Sam smiled weakly and then looked him fully in the eye. 

“I’m sorry, Sir,” she whispered. 

“What for, Carter?”

“For earlier, Sir... you know... when I...” Sam stuttered awkwardly. 

“Oh... earlier...” Jack threw his upturned thumb over his shoulder. “When you invited yourself to my cabin?” He knew he shouldn’t tease her, he could tell by the alarmingly pink flush to her cheeks that she was beyond embarrassed but the temptation was too strong and he loved making her blush. 

“Yes... that.” She squirmed. “Forget I even asked you.”

Whilst making Sam Carter blush had become one of his favourite pastimes over the years, making her so uncomfortable that she looked like she might just burst into tears, hadn’t. So much had happened lately and he’d been finding it hard to come to terms with it himself, let alone Carter who had only a few weeks earlier, buried her father. 

Jack reached out and placed his hand on Sam’s arms which were firmly crossed against her chest and gently guided her to a secluded part of the corridor away from prying eyes.   
“It’s not that I don’t want you to come with, it’s just that...” Jack dipped his head so that he could make eye contact with her. “I’m not sure your fiancé would be too pleased... that’s if you were going to tell him?”

“I wasn’t.” Sam replied, bluntly. 

“Ah.”

All of a sudden, the already uncomfortable atmosphere became a whole lot worse. 

“Do you want to talk about it, Carter? I mean as your CO I have a duty to make sure you’re okay...”

“A duty? Is that all it is... Sir.”

“Carter,” Jack’s tone told her that she was stepping over the line and God forbid they did that! 

“Look, I told you, forget I said anything. You go and enjoy your weekend at your cabin,” Sam snapped. “Permission to leave, Sir?” 

Jack nodded and watched bemused as Sam rounded the corner and disappeared from view.   
........

It was a gamble and a pretty risky gamble at that. He had no idea if Sam would be alone or if Pete would be there when he called. But, he’d been so perplexed by her behaviour the previous day that despite his better judgement, he knew he had to find out what was wrong. 

He’d spent years inviting her to his cabin and she’d always turned him down. She’d been the one with the willpower, or so he’d always thought but perhaps she didn’t have any, he mused and that’s the reason she never felt able to accept his invitations.

He turned the corner into her road and stopped a short distance from her house. There was no sign of Pete’s car which was encouraging but just as he was about to start up the engine again, he spotted the door to her garage slowly lifting. Once fully open, he saw Sam pushing her motorbike out onto the drive. She was obviously preparing to go for a ride. It was now or never. He started up his truck and put it into gear. 

He reached her drive and parked across it before she’d even straddled her bike. Sam rested her helmet on the saddle and turned to face Jack as he stepped down from his truck.   
“Sir... I thought you’d be on the road long before now.”

“Yeah, I should have been but I realised that I’d forgotten something,” Jack shrugged his shoulders. 

“Oh, I see. Must be something pretty important.”

“I think so,” Jack stared at her intently. 

Sam shifted awkwardly, “Was there something that you wanted?”

“Yes... you.”

“I beg your pardon, Sir. For a minute there I thought you said.. “

“Yep, I did. The thing that I forgot, Carter, was you. Now... go pack a bag.”

Sam stared at him with her mouth agape. “But... I don’t have anything ready.”

“Carter, we’re going to my cabin for the weekend. You don’t need many clothes.”

As soon as he’d said it he knew that it had come out all wrong and her shocked expression confirmed his worse fears. 

“What I meant to say was, we won’t be doing anything but fishin’ and chillin’ so you only need a change of clothes,” he smiled trying to reassure her. 

“I’m not sure it’s such a great idea,” she shook her head. 

“You’re the one that suggested it in the first place,” he shot back at her. 

“Yep, well, you certainly made your feelings clear when I did.”

“Carter, don’t have me make it an order... please.”

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head, “You’ll have to give me five minutes, is that okay?”

“Sure,” Jack grinned. “I’ll wait in the truck.”

Sam had indeed only been five minutes. Just like he was, she was an expert at hasty packing. She’d lost count of the number of off world missions where things had gone fubar and they’d had to get the hell out of some God forsaken place in the blink of an eye.

Sam hauled her pack into the back of Jack’s truck and slid into the passenger seat. 

“You better drive before I change my mind,” she said, warningly. 

“Yes, Ma’am.” Jack saluted her before putting the truck into gear.  
...…

The journey took forever. Early on, Sam had fought to keep her eyes open but too many sleepless nights had finally caught up on her and she quickly succumbed to sleep. 

Several hours later, the motion of the truck coming to a halt, woke her from her slumber.

She didn’t become fully aware of her surroundings until Jack opened her door and gave her a gentle nudge. 

“We’re here,” he smiled as he grabbed their bags from the back of the truck. 

He’d been quite glad that Sam had fallen asleep. He got the feeling that their journey could have been a bit awkward to say the least if they’d had to make small talk all the way. He knew they needed to talk but he wanted to do it amidst the tranquil surroundings of his cabin. 

As Sam looked around outside, Jack took the bags inside. He opened up the windows to let some fresh air in and opened up the door to the back porch. 

Sam had made her way onto the jetty and was looking out over the pond. She’d heard him behind her but she didn’t turn, she just continued to look at a couple of birds that were diving and darting over the surface of the water.

“It’s beautiful,” she sighed, contentedly. 

Jack leaned in and nudged her shoulder. “I told ya.”

“Thank you,” Sam smiled warmly as Jack raised his arm so that she could nestle against him “... for not forgetting me.”

“I could never do that, Carter.”

They stood for what seemed like an age, just looking and soaking in all the natural beauty that surrounded them. 

The rest of the day was spent fishing, mostly in a companionable silence. There was so much that he needed to know but for now, Sam needed to heal and the solitude that surrounded them seemed to be just the medicine she needed. 

With supper over, Jack set the fire. It was a beautiful traditional open fire and the damp logs hissed and crackled as the flames took hold. He sat back into the sofa and Sam chose to sit on the rug with her back resting against a chair. The air was chilly but the heat from the fire soon warmed her bones. 

“How’re you doing, Carter?”

Sam turned to him and he could see that her eyes were glistening in the glow of the fire. 

“Okay, I suppose,” she shrugged.

“Really? It doesn’t look that way to me.”

“Ah... this is you and your duty asking me, right?” Sam asked, somewhat sarcastically. 

“Nope, this is me asking you because I care.”

Sam took a deep breath and hung her head. “I’m sorry, Sir. I guess I’m not doing all that well.”

“I guessed as much and Sam, cut it out with the Sir. When we’re here, it’s just Jack.” He slid off the sofa until he was sitting next to her on the rug. Their shoulders touched and they both stared into the dancing flames of the fire. 

“I thought I was okay with losing Dad. I was at first. I was just grateful that he’d had the extra time to know about all the things that I knew too. But since the funeral I’ve started to get angry, I hate him for leaving me. How fucked up is that?” Sam sighed. 

“I think it’s pretty normal,” Jack began to fiddle with a loose thread on the rug. “There are a number of stages that you go through when you grieve and anger is definitely one of them.”

Of course, she realised, he would know better than most about grief and she also knew that his words were born from an immense pain that he had been forced to endure after the death of his son. 

“I’m sorry... Jack. I didn’t mean to drag up the past.”

“Don’t be sorry, Sam. You’ll never forget your Dad, but you will forgive him... one day.” Jack dropped the thread and looked up. “Do ya talk to Pete about how you feel... ‘cos you should.”

Sam shook her head. “Pete’s the reason I asked if I could come here with you.”

Jack’s brain immediately began to go into overdrive and conjure up scenarios that he’d really rather not contemplate.

“He hasn’t done anything to hurt you has he? Cos I swear, if he has.” Jack pushed himself upright and turned to Sam.

“Hey, calm down.” Sam placed her hand on his chest. “He hasn’t hurt me. In fact, I’m the one that’s been doing the hurting.”

Jack screwed up his face in an attempt to figure out what she meant. 

“You see I’d made my mind up way before Dad died but it was the fact that I didn’t want the comfort and understanding that Pete was prepared to give that made me realise that I was fooling both of us. I didn’t need to tell Pete about coming here because we’re not together anymore.”

“You broke off your engagement?” Jack asked. He was surprised and relieved all at the same time. 

“Yep, that’s why I wanted to come here. I couldn’t tell you at the base, I tried but it didn’t seem right,” Sam was embarrassed and unsure of how Jack might react.  
“How’d he take it?” 

“Err... not so great, I think he probably went away and sulked for a while,” Sam laughed nervously. 

“Yeah, that figures. He struck me as the ‘toys out of the pram’ type of guy,” Jack didn’t want to sound too smug but he really had never liked him and even if he hadn’t been dating Carter, he still wouldn’t have liked the man.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the flames flicker and spark as they began to die down. 

“Don’t you ever get tired of being on your own?” Sam asked him tentatively. 

“I guess I don’t get much time to think about it. I’m hardly ever off base.” Jack was being honest but he also knew that if he didn’t see Sam every day as a matter of course, then he would indeed feel as if there was a huge void in his life.

“Well, I do. I’m lonely, Jack and even when I was with Pete, I still felt lonely.” Sam took hold of Jack’s arm and lifted it so that she could snuggle next to him. 

“When Dad was dying he told me that I could still have everything that I want and I thought I already had it but then after his funeral I realised that I didn’t want Pete to be the one who comforted me and told me everything would be okay... I wanted it to be you.”

Jack pulled Sam closer to him until their bodies were flush against each other, side by side. Sam rested her head on his shoulder and he placed a kiss on her forehead.

“I told you that I’ll always be here for you and I meant it, I will but I can’t and won’t ruin your career by getting you court martialled.” Jack’s free hand was now stroking her hair whilst the other traced gentle circles across her back.

Sam sighed heavily, “Dad also told me that I shouldn’t let rules stand in my way. I’ve always done things by the book but it’s time to start thinking about me now. We can have what we want, Jack, I think we deserve it, don’t you?”

Sam looked up from his shoulder and placed her hand softly on his cheek. 

“I’ve loved you for what seems like forever and I know that I’ll never be able to have a relationship with anyone else. You’re the only one that I want to spend my life with and I hope that maybe you feel the same way about me or I’ve just made the biggest jerk out of myself since asking you if I could come...”

Jack cut off her words by covering her lips with his own. Sam immediately responded and opened her mouth slightly so that their kiss deepened. 

“We’ll find a way,” Jack gasped as they broke apart, “because I love you.”


End file.
